It has been a common practice in the garment manufacturing industry to incorporate a waistband in the waist region of pants. Waistbands are used in both men's and women's pants, shorts, and other garments. However, the application of waistbands to men's pants will be used by way of example from which application of the invention waistband to other type garments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The waistband is typically made up as a narrow width fabric by a narrow fabric producer and is sold to the binding or garment manufacturer as a component. A popular type of waistband is made up as schematically illustrated in FIG. 1 of two knitted fabric strips which are sewn together lengthwise after each of the strips have been separately knitted typically on a crochet type knitting machine. One of the strips comprises a plain elastic stitch fabric with substantial longitudinal stretch and minimal or substantially no widthwise stretch. This first mentioned strip is sometimes made decorative and also made for wearing comfort since it is often exposed in the finished garment, dependent on the type of waistband fabrication. The other portion of the waistband which is typically hidden in the garment is made with an anti-roll construction which in use resists rolling of the waistband on itself particularly when the finished pants are worn by men with protruding abdominal body configurations. The portion of the waistband exhibiting the anti-roll characteristic is also conventionally made on a crochet machine as a narrow width fabric. The strip of fabric exhibiting the anti-roll characteristic also typically exhibits longitudinal stretch but minimal or substantially no widthwise stretch. The two strips are separately finished with finishing techniques suited to their particular characteristics and the finishing steps are followed by a sewing step which joins two edges of the two separate strips together as a continuous length to produce the final composite waistband strip. A roll of such narrow width waistband fabric is then sold by the narrow fabric producer to the binding or garment manufacturer for use in the finished garment according to various waistband fabrication practices, some of which are later described.
In another practice, a narrow width fabric is crochet knit with an anti-roll characteristic extending completely across the fabric widthwise as schematically illustrated in FIG. 2. This anti-roll narrow fabric is then finished and sold to the binding or garment manufacturer. Such waistband fabric also typically exhibits substantial longitudinal stretch and minimal or substantially no widthwise stretch. This practice as diagrammed in FIG. 2 has the advantage of having to finish only a single fabric strip and eliminates the sewing step illustrated in FIG. 1. However, the resulting waistband fabric, while roll resistant, is generally not comfortable to wear, does not provide a portion that can be both comfortable and decorative and does not readily lend itself to being incorporated in a stretch garment fabric in which the waistband is completely or partially hidden in the manner of FIGS. 12 and 13 as later referred to.
A machine crochet knit narrow width elastic fabric can be made with uncovered elastic yarns since the crochet knitting process lends itself to using the filling yarns as cover for the otherwise uncovered elastic yarns. A woven narrow waistband fabric having both a lengthwise extending anti-roll construction as well as lengthwise extending plain weave decorative construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,698. The use of monofilament yarns in the widthwise direction to add stiffness is disclosed but in a woven as distinct from a knitted construction. Moreover, such woven waistband fabric is noted as requiring the use of covered elastic yarns as contrasted to use of the substantially less expensive uncovered elastic yarns as in the present invention waistband.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,927 teaches a waistband having upper and lower longitudinally extending elastic, waistband sections merging at mating edges with the upper section being elastic only in the longitudinal direction and the lower section being elastic in both longitudinal and transverse or widthwise direction. The lower section is described as being adapted to resist rollover. However, no specific information concerning type of machine employed, construction, yarns, elasticity, or the like, is given. The patent nevertheless states that the described fabric can be made either as sewn together strips or integrally by weaving, knitting, braiding or on what is referred to as a "Galon" type of machine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,858,622 and 3,920,054 describe other types of narrow, woven waistband fabric and give useful background information concerning the desired anti-roll characteristic in a waistband fabric. U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,599 is also noted for background in teaching the importance of having a waistband fabric which tends to lay flat for handling and cutting during fabrication of the garment.
Other aspects of the prior art of significance to the invention relates to how the waistband is attached to the garment material, how the waistband retracts and expands with relation to the garment fabric, how the waistband resists rollover in service when attached to the garment fabric, how the waistband and attached garment fabric individually behave with respect to shrinkage during cleaning and how the garment and waistband fabric elastic, roll resistant and wear characteristics generally change during the life of the garment. The objective of achieving the ideal waistband fabric for all applications has thus long faced the industry.
With the foregoing background in mind it thus becomes the object of the present invention to provide a machine crochet knit waistband fabric of integral construction with one upper lengthwise extending portion exhibiting a substantially anti-roll characteristic and another lower lengthwise extending portion exhibiting both a decorative and comfortable wearing construction. The invention also has as a further object the elimination of the described conventional strip sewing operation. A further object is that of providing a waistband fabric which can be finished as an integral strip in one finishing operation. Additionally, the invention has as an object the provision of an integrally knit waistband fabric which does not tend to curl on itself longitudinally or transversely, which tends to lay flat for handling and cutting, provides a balanced construction longitudinally and transversely, exhibits substantial and substantially equal longitudinal stretch in both upper and lower portions and minimal or substantially no transverse stretch, is specifically adapted to use with garments made of stretch fabric and otherwise exhibits commercially satisfactory cleaning and wear characteristics. These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.